Study Of Brain Functional Connectivity And Network In Patients With Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis With Sensory Disorders

Purpose:Paresthesia is a the most common clinical symptom,present in more than 80% of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis(RRMS).Moreover,the postcentral gyrus(Po CG)plays a major role in somatosensory network.The aim of our study was to assess the changes of functional connectivity(FC)and brain network topological properties in patients with RRMS and to investigate the correlation between abnormal FC and network properties and clinical scores..Materials and Methods:1)Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging(RS-f MRI)and functional network were performed in 26 patients with RRMS with sensory and 23 healthy control(HC)in our hospital.The RS-f MRI data was analyzed using REST software,and the FC of the postcentral gyrus was evaluated based on the voxel analysis method,and the correlation between FC and clinical score was analyzed.(2)RS-f MRI was performed on 26 patients with RRMS with sensory disorder and 20 gender-and age-matched healthy controls in our hospital.GRETNA was used to analyze the differential brain regions between the two groups,and the correlation between network properties of the different brain regions and clinical scores.Results:1)Compare with the control group(HC),the left postcentral-based FC showed decreased FC with the right Rolandic operculum gurus(extending to the superior temporal gyrus and postcentral gyrus),the right lingual lobe,and the cerebellar hemisphere;and increase FC with the left middle frontal lobe.The right postcentral-based FC revealed decreased FC with the right Heschl's gyrus lobule(extending to Rolandic operculum gurus and superior temporal gyrus),and increase FC with bilateral middle frontal lobe(P<0.001,Alpha Sim corrected).Correlation analysis revealed these altered brain regions were associated with Fm SS,EDSS and disease duration.2)Compared with the HC group,the local efficiency of the RRMS group decreased significantly,including bilateral superior and medial frontal gyrus,cingulate gyrus,cuneus gyrus,lingual gyrus,postcentral gyrus and temporal-occipital lobe;the Deg of bilateral superior frontal gyrus,cingulate gyrus,left medial frontal gyrus and left insular lobes were decreased(P<0.01,FDR corrected);global efficiency between RRMS group and HC group were not obviously significant.Eloc was negatively correlated with the disease duration,including the right orbital and superior frontal lobe and the left medial superior frontal gyrus(P<0.05).Conclusion:The functional connectivity of Po CG at RS-f MRI has multi-network changes in patients with RRMS with somatosensory disorder which indicated there has complex patterns of abnormal connections between the somatosensory network regions and whole brain.Correlation between brain function connectivity and network topology attributes and clinically scores indicates that functional connectivity and graph-based complex network analysis can be an effective tool for MS disease activity.